Free A Little Deception by Beverley Eikli Page A

possible?’
    ***
    Rose returned to find Aunt Alice deep in conversation with Lady
Rodham.
    ‘Where’s Arabella?’ she asked.
    The women jerked their heads up almost guiltily.
    ‘She’s in safe hands, dancing with Yarrowby,’ Aunt Alice
reassured her.
    ‘Dancing with Lord Yarrowby – again?’ The concern in
Rose’s voice caused the women to break off their enthusiastically resumed
conversation.
    ‘She’s made a fine impression on him.’ Aunt Alice looked
smug.
    Rose glanced across the floor and saw Arabella, a fairylike
creature in palest pink, supported like a fragile flower in Lord Yarrowby’s
embrace as he waltzed her around the room.
    ‘We really know very little about Lord Yarrowby, Aunt
Alice,’ Rose cautioned. ‘He appears charming, but …’
    ‘Only son, set to inherit a vast fortune, and a title that
goes back to Henry the Eighth’s time. Like Rampton, he’d be a catch of the
season. What else do you need to know, my girl?’ asked the Lady Rodham. ‘A
simple lass from the West Indies would struggle to do better.’
    ‘Yes, but what about other … well, you know … other associations?’
Rose floundered.
    ‘Ay, there’ve been mistresses. Noble women and dancing
girls, alike. What of it?’
    Rose felt embarrassed for reacting like the cloistered colonial
she was. Of course, many married men of their rank kept mistresses; it wasn’t
as if Lord Yarrowby had a wife as well.
    ‘Miss Celia Baxter was the most notorious,’ Lady Rodham said
thoughtfully. ‘An opera dancer. Dark-haired, round, ripe and pretty. I saw her
at Covent Garden the night London was buzzing over the famous altercation
between Rampton and Yarrowby.’
    Rose concealed her distress. ‘Altercation?’
    ‘Yarrowby was set upon by Lord Rampton in Regent’s Park, of
all places. In the middle of the afternoon. Quite a scandal it caused, I need
not tell you! Pistols at dawn – now that wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow.
But common street brawling!’
    Aunt Alice ventured a surreptitious glance at her niece
before quizzing her friend in what was clearly intended to be a tone of no more
than casual interest, ‘I am shocked. I had heard only good reports of Lord
Rampton.’
    ‘Men are brutish by nature.’ Lady Rodham made a noise of
disgust. ‘I’ll wager it was over nothing and certainly nothing I’d be worried
about if I was planning to throw my daughter Rampton’s way.’
    ‘Yes, but what about Lord Yarrowby?’ Rose asked with an
anxious glance at the gentleman in question, who was now leading Arabella
towards them. The thought of Lord Rampton being driven by strong passions for a
woman made it hard to breathe.
    ‘A charming man,’ Lady Rodham assured her without qualification.
What does it matter if their quarrel was over some common little opera dancer?
If Yarrowby stole her from Rampton, I’m sure Rampton had fixed his interest
elsewhere within a day or two. That’s men for you.’
    ‘Your Lord Rampton has a long and shady past,’ Helena said
brightly, as she swept up to Rose. ‘There was even a rumour that he locked one
of his mistresses in his tower for seven days before the fair lady’s husband
discovered her whereabouts. There was a duel over that little scandal, too.’
    ‘Spurious gossip-mongering,’ Rose muttered, though her voice
lacked conviction. Of course Helena would blithely say the first thing that
came to her if she knew it would rattle Rose. She did not like the tumultuous
feelings that overcame her, however, when Lady Rodham replied, ‘What your
sister-in-law says is perfectly true, my dear. Not that it has done his
lordship’s reputation any harm.’
    ‘Ah, Oswald,’ said Aunt Alice, forestalling Rose’s reply.
‘I’m sure Rose would be delighted to partner you in this set.’
    With an ironic bow to Helena, Oswald offered Rose his arm,
brushing suggestively against his raven-haired cousin before putting out his
hand to steady her.
    ‘Forgive me, Cousin Helena,’ he apologized,